Finshed Scraper Plane

Scrap maple Curve in the front block Layout before the glue up

Glued and rough shaped with the wedge and scraper




It makes fine shavings. Water damage on some Walnut burl veneer just perfect for this scraper



Few passes and it's all cleaned up, and @ $63 for 4 sq ft you don't want to sand or plane through it.


Scraper plane all finished shaped and sanded and ready for use

I just put the first coat of an oil finish on it, and it looks great. it make fine shaving with very little effort. I think I will make another one maybe a cove scraper I really hate scraping cove rail.

Peace Everyone
Joey

My Woodworking Goals for 2009

I decided to set some personal goals for myself this year, and I want to put them down on the recorder for future references.
So here they are.
1, Is to learn more about the history of the furniture designers that have influenced how we think about furniture today.
2, Develop more of my hand tool skills, not that I will ever be a total galoot, but I do enjoy working that way at times.
3, To improve my furniture finishing skills. I would like to learn more on furniture finishes techniques from fuming to french polishing.
4, I want to build a nice tool cabinet or tool containment system as I am now calling it.
5, last I want to build a bench I can use personally at home to do hand tool work and craving on .

This don't sound to daunting, but on top of this I am still trying to open my own shop. and go back to school. All this and trying not to end up living in a tent city with all the other out of work carpenters out there.

Joey

One Mans Trash is Anothers Table Pt2

My table top is coming along nicely, slower than I am use to progressing on a project like this but I’m not complaining I am getting back in touch with why I love woodworking. Normally I would of none a small top like this one in a day or so with some other work squeezed in between the drying time for the glue up. But since I have no shop, and I’m doing the work with hand tools, and some hand held power tools in the living room of my apartment and in the front yard when it’s not raining, it is taking me a bit longer, which is alright with me, I’m enjoying myself.

I really forgot how nice it is to run a sharp plane over a board and hear that crisp sound of iron slicing wood, and the smell, oh the smell of fresh pine filling my nose without the distraction of grease in the air. Yes I am falling in love with woodworking again. Working with hand tools sometimes make me feel like I am a rookie again and you know what? I like that. It makes me have to stop and think before I do things, and plan more than I did when I was working with my machines. I was a good cabinetmaker but it’s a lot like being a grunt in the Army, you build what you’re told, when you’re told, and you get very little opportunity to put anything of yourself into your work. I still loved it though, same with owning my own shop. But now doing work for my wife and myself I can put 100% of me into the piece’s I build and that has me excited.

When I first gave up on the idea of have a working shop again I was more than I little depressed and I wasn’t sure I wanted to even do woodworking anymore, but I kept cleaning and sharpening my tools I even picked up some treasured planes and saws that my wife would show me when we went to the flea market or yard sales. Even us picking up that table base and her gloating me into making a top for her was her way of getting me back on the horse, so to speak. Then she said something to me that really hit home she told me that “an artist and a woodworker is what you are not what you do” that’s when I realized I don’t have to make money with my woodworking to be a woodworker and if in the future I get the chance to have working shop, that will be great, but if I don’t, I still have my wife and daughter, who both have honey do list longer than I have time to complete, and I am sure it will grow as time goes by. Now I just need to decide what’s next in my life, the wife and I are thinking about truck driving, so stay tune.

One Mans Trash is Anothers Table

We were on out driving one day when I see this cast iron table base setting by the side of the road in the garbage and point it out to my wife, and my wife says to me stop! and pick that up. Now that alone cause me to jerk the car to side of the rode so fast I almost caused a wreck, mainly, because she usually deplores my occasionally ventures into dumpster diving even thought I have found some pretty interesting stuff even by her standards. I looked at her and said damn! after 25 years I am rubbing off on you. She looked back at me and said don’t get your hopes up buddy that we’ll rummage thru dumpster together, cause it’s not going to happen, I just think that it will make a nice table and as you know we do need one, so get your ass out there and grab it, then we can talk about what kind of a top I want you to make me!

I did the dutiful husband thing and I jumped out of the car and grab the base. It was a nice find and to be honest I would of picked it up anyway. I loaded it in the back seat of the car, crawled in and off we went with our new treasure. After a few miles I look at her and asked, so do you have something in mind for that piece of crap in the back seat? mocking her loving. Yes, yes I do, she said, I want you to make me a knotty pine top to match the hutch. I said pine, not pine, she said why not pine?

I said because it isn’t the best material to make a table top out of. She said “but it’s what I want”, and then said “my minds made and I counted to three”, quoting the lady on Oh Brother Were Are Thou meaning there was no changing her mind. All I said was “dang gone it you done went and counted to three”, meaning I got the message and pine it would be. After a few more miles she explained “I want a small round table with the edges rounded over, and I would like left a natural color with maybe some kind of inlay in red or something in the top. Just do your thing and make pretty”.

Do my thing? make it pretty? pine, ok I can work with this, I think. It seems when ever I build things for my own home it ends being pine. Some time in the late 80s before all the kitchen manufacture offered pine cabinets the shop I worked in started building pine kitchen cabinets, not because we wanted to work with pine, it can be a pain to work with, but because there was a market for it. We were good at it and build a lot of kitchens. Ever since then pine has seem to follow me as a material that my customers seem to chose even when I try to recommend other choices, even my wife. Lucky for her I just happen to have some 2 x 8 yellow pine under the bed drying out. Don’t ask why that’s another story.

I hand planed the 2 x 8s and glued them together trying to get them as flat as I could. What twist that is in the top I hope to take out with a sliding dovetail cleat. I left the two end boards off and after the cleat is inserted I will glue them on so that the dovetail can’t be seen. The base will be attach to the cleats with four rail bolts and ¼ 20 nuts so the top can be removed. Then with the top attached I will plane it flat and route it into a circle then decide how to make it pretty? Out of all the people I have done work for and no matter how silly she is about my skills my wife is the one person I never want to disappoint.

Information Overload

The other day I pick up some wood working magazines at a yard sale for $ 10.00, there was 167 magazines to be exacted. There were about 4 years of Wood, a few Popular Woodworking, American Woodworking, Workbench, Woodworking Journal, and 47 Woodsmith. All of these magazines I read and a few I even subscribe to, so this was a real find for me even though I already own a lot of the issues in my own collection.

Now I don’t know about you but having all that information setting there in a box was just to much temptation for me to resist, so I ended up setting up until 4 am last night pursing all them back issues till I head was bobbing and I was red I eyed, like was back in college cramping for an exam in micro economics. Needless to say I was on information overload, but I did see a few think that really caught my interest and I set them aside for later.

With ever new issue I picked up I couldn’t help but wonder how could he sell such a collection of information, I know I could never part with mine no more that I could give up my favorite block plane or some my other tools that I have had for 20 years now. I am always going back though my magazine looking for ideas or a better way to do something and most times they don’t fail me.

Out of the 167 magazines I bought there were about 80 I didn’t own the other I will pass on to another wood worker who I hope will get good use from them. Over the years I have seen many changes in the magazines and I have to admit that Popular Woodworking is still one of my favorites along with Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding. They appeal more to the work I do but I believe the other all still have much to offer.

Design Journal Exercises

Every since I started my woodworking career I have been interested in design. I have taken a few classes in college in design and drafting. Although the classes touch on all the classic points of design the classes wasn’t gear to the furniture maker, but I did learn a few things.

Classes are a good way to get some basics but the way I really started to explore my design ideas came when I started keeping design journals. I once read from a architect that he keeps a journals of ideals that he didn’t like, yes don’t like, according to him it was easier to narrow down the details that you don’t like than keep track of all the things that you like. So I started a couple of journals. In one I put pictures or photos of stuff I don’t like even if just a small details in the piece, and then I would write notes on the page of why I don’t like it and why I don’t think it works and what I think I would do as an alterative to that detail. This journal over the years has come to be a big help for me to understand my own taste in design, and I suggest if you really want to get in touch with what you like start with a journal about what you don’t like.

The second journal I keep is one where I keep quick sketches and rough ideas that come to me at any time. It’s a place where if I get one them great little ideas for a table I can jolt it down for a later reference. I don’t worry about making it a finished drawing I just want to preserve the idea at this point. I also keep this one by my bed side, because believe it or not some of my best ideas come to me in my sleep, so I keep it close at hand that way when I wake up and record my idea. This is where I go when I start a design job after I have heard what the customer wants just to see if I already have something in my book that will meet their need, and if I do I develop it from there. Most of these drawings are crude little isometric drawings that don’t show a lot of detail I add that after I have a feel for the finished piece

My third journal is one that I keep pictures of other peoples work, and other thing that catch my eye from magazines. If I’m out and have my camera I might take picture of architecture elements I find appealing, sometimes I like to use them in my designs. I really like trim work in old houses and since I spent most my life as a trim carpenter I am always on the look out for great trim work. This journal can grow very large if you’re not careful so I divided mine up in to different pieces I keep tables in one and beds in another volume and so on it makes it easier to find what I’m looking for that way.

After I have designed a piece I usually keep it in a file on the computer along with any other finished drawings I have. That way I have my customer drawings or sales drawings, then my working drawings, and cut list, time sheets, material list, and my building notes all in one file.

Over the years these are some of the tools that have helped me to become a better designer. I still read every thing I can and have started studying a lot of the older pieces of antique furniture and taking a harder look at the things that I said I didn’t like, because I am finding that some of the things that I didn’t like 15 years ago I find very pleasing now and I guess age really doe’s change one’s out look and I wouldn’t even remember that I didn’t like most of this stuff if it wasn’t or my journals.

The Work Bench Saga Part 1

The trouble with a two dollar work bench is some times you get what you pay for! Now I know I really didn’t waste the two dollar I spent on the work bench top I bough from the auction, because of the wooden screw vice that was with it, but as far as the top goes it will never be the work bench of my dreams either.

First of all it looked like some one had a nail driving contest in the top, I have invest several hours in to the removal of ever kind of nail from tacks to ten penny commons and didn’t seem to put a dent in them.

Second the top is a little on the short side coming in at 53 “ after I cut off the jog from the tail vice that was missing when I got the top.

All this didn’t dissuade from resurrecting the top into a usable workbench, it will just be one I use for power tools more that hand tools. The condition of the top did give me some problems but I decide to flip it over and use the underside as the work surface. This surface was quite uneven from when they originally glued up the top, they planed the top side, but left the bottom willy-nilly, with some joints being as much as a ¼ inch difference in height. This would have been a lot to hand plane and I don’t own a scrub plane so I needed to come up with a way to dress it down this using my Delta 13” lunchbox planer. The top is 18 “wide so the first thing I did was to cut it in one of the glue joint giving me two sections that would fit though the planer. Then I made a sled for it because the top wasn’t in the best shape from all the nails and so I could shim it if I needed it to take out any twist, surprisingly the top was flat. I took several shallow cuts with the planer because the maple was very hard and after I had a uniform surface I glued the sections together again. I left the extra length from the tail vice on it because my plane tends to snipe a bit. I will cut them off after I square up the ends, and I plan making some breadboard ends that I will be attach using a free floating ½ spine and a couple of lag bolts. I will also build a tool tray and install a nice vice I got at the same auction for $5 dollars. The base will be made from some yellow pine I got at Home Depot in their cull bin I pick up 11, 2 x 8 x 4’ for $1 a pieces so when its all said and done this bench should cost me about $25 dollars. Now maybe this bench isn’t my dream workbench, but it’s already starting to feel like an old friend and while everyone and their brother has try to give be some other purpose for this old top I think it’s a lot like me and still has a few more years of working with wood left in its bones before it becomes a chopping block.

From a Professional To a Hobbyist

Going from a professional woodworker to a hobbyist is easer said then done, and I am not sure I will ever really make that transition completely. I think in my mind I will always be trying to find a way to make money with my woodworking. Thirty years of habit is hard to break.

The hardest thing I am finding is motivation to do woodworking at all, because in the pass it was always a job that pushed me into the shop. Now I find my self kind of lost in thought, I mean I want to try some new things I haven’t gotten to explore in the pass but I find myself just sharpening my tools or designing dozen of different tables that might sell. It’s like I can’t bring myself to put tool to wood without the promise of payment. Maybe woodworking has been a job for me so long now I am afraid to let myself start enjoying the pleasures of it, and slow down and relax while I build a just for fun. When you do woodworking for a living and if you work for yourself everything you do relates back to money so you lost a lot of the enjoyment when you build and you take on a lot of stress. The pieces that you build are dictated by your customers, the time you spend working on it are dictated by the price you are getting paid for it, and in that there isn’t much room for enjoyment with the exception of job well done and a satisfied customer.

I am hoping with a little time I will find my way back to what brought me to woodworking in the first place, maybe I need to just go with it and follow my instincts and see where they take me. Maybe what my minds telling me is to go back to the beginning and work my way though from there, I purchased Chris Schwarz Workbenches Book and I am planning building a Roubo bench for myself. I also picked up several used planes, and hand saws at some yard sales that I have been restoring back to working condition to start using. I also plan to try different areas of styles woodworking that I haven’t gotten to try in the pass to see if one of them lights some sore of fire in me. I do know I enjoy carving and I have not gotten to do a lot of that in the pass so we’ll see what happens. I also would like to try my hand at making tools maybe make myself a couple of hand planes and my own saws and see where that goes and writing seems to excite as much as any building does so I really want to keep doing more how to articles in this blog not just my thoughts, so you can look forward to seeing more of that. So stay safe

Joey

My Ten Cent Chisel

In one of my older blog I talked about a fellow giving me a 1 ½ inch chisel that didn’t have a handle on it. Well last night I was kind of bored so I decided to put a new handle on it. But the tang of the chisel was a little beat up, it looked like someone was using it without the handle and they had it the metal rolled over, so I used a brace with a reamer on it to cut off all the rolled metal, then filed the top flat, this gave me a flat top and a nice clean taper. Then I soaked the chisel in a solution of Kool-Aid, yes Kool-Aid. I did this to remove the rust and it works well, all you do is mix a package of Kool-Aid with ½ the water and no sugar. I let it soak for a couple of hours then dried the chisel off really good. This took all the surface rust off, but there was still some corrosion and pits in it but this won’t affect the chisel.

. I had some maple from a stool that I cut off from the legs and the off fall looks like they would fit the bill just right. I started preparing the handle by finding the center then I measure the depth I need for the tapered that fits in the chisels tang, then I used a saw to cut a shoulder around the maple and started removing material with a chisel, once I had a round tendon I started on the taper, here again I also used a chisel and rasp. After some trial and error I had a good fit. Then I cut some small nicks in the taper for the epoxy to have something to bite into. I also nicked the inside of the tank of the chisel for the same reason. Then I glued the handle to the chisel with five minute epoxy.

When the epoxy was set I clamped the chisel in my vise and used a spoke shave to rough the handle down to size, then I used a block plane to further clean up the handle. When I had a shape that was close the what I was looking for I started refining to shape by working with files and sandpaper, now I know this tool will a tool that I will be using with my hand more that beating on with a mallet and I wanted something that was comfortable, so I paid a lot of attention to how it felt in my hand and I work from that prospective. Most of the chisels I have purchased in the pass are uncomfortable for me to use in my hands because the handles are to small and they put to much pressure in a small area of my hand causing pain after just a short time working with them so I want a larger butt on the handle of the chisel, this will also give a larger striking area if I am using a mallet and it gave the chisel better balance.

Now for a couple hour of work if you can call it that, and a package of lemon Kool-Aid I have a really nice 1 ½ chisel that would of cost me maybe 30 or 40 dollars, but more that that I got the chance to talk to a interesting man, recycle a nice tool, save a small scrap of maple, and get the satisfaction of making my own tools, well sort of, and I all ready know I’ll be reaching for that chisel more than the one I bought at the store. What more can you ask from ten cents?

My Dying Little Town

Here we sit planning a new business in our town and I just notice that all a round us other businesses are going out of business. In the last twelve months there has been at lease three major companies closed their doors including Palm Harbor Home who manufactured low cost prefab homes. Mac Tools have and slowed down their production. Our main street has many more unoccupied store fronts then occupied ones. So why! I ask you would I want to try to start a business in a town that looks like it is for lack of a better term dying.

Well I think that on a whole, little towns all across the country are going though the same type changes with business closing or moving off shore, and with gas going to four dollars a gallon people really can’t afford to live out here and drive to the city. I know we are paying almost 20% of every dollar my wife make just for her to drive to work and for some people it much higher. So again why should I try to start a woodworking business in my little town?

As I thought about this and I have giving it a lot of thought I came up with this, I believe that small business is what is going to drive any recovery we have in this economy especially for small towns like ours. I think it’s time that small towns like these needs to try to make it more attractive for small businesses to open up and do business in them. I also think its time to go back to living and working in the same community that you live. I know that’s one thing I think we lost and with it a sense of community. When business owners live in the same community that they do business they are more likely to be more involved in that community because it is also their home. Wouldn’t it be great to see pride in our towns come back and I’ m not talking about that few days a year like we now we do it now.

The how? now that’s the hard part. I have notice in several of the magazines’ I read, in their classifieds they have been posting for artist and crafts people wanting them to consider moving to their towns. They have come up with special finance on housing and studio space some towns have even purchased abandoned factories and convert them to workshops studios, and retail space. Some of these communities have attract some of the top artist in there fields and in turn they offer apprenticeships’ which attract people from all over the country, both to learn and shop for their wares. This has helped to open bed and breakfasts, campgrounds, restaurants, other small gifts shops, antique shops and a host of other small businesses that help to revive and energize a small town.

So this is just one example of how small businesses can revive a dying little town. It would take time, patients, money, talent, and above all faith. So do I think I will start a business in my dying little town, why yes, and who knows maybe I will be planting the seed of change or I could just fall on flat on butt and go broke. But I will never know unless I try, will I, so all I can do now is do my homework, save my money, plan the best I can, and go for it.

Yards Sales and Old Tools

I love Memorial Day weekend, not only because it signals the start of summer, but because its one of the biggest yard sale weekends of the year, everyone is out there like eager little beavers trying to sell all there accumulative junk. Lucky for me one mans junk is another mans treasure and I found some treasure this weekend. First I picked an older Stanley back saw that looks like it could be from the 1940s. The guy wanted $20 dollars for it and when he saw me looking at it he said to me I’ll take ten for it, then a few minutes later as I was eyeing down the teeth of the saw which where in great shape, he came over and said I tell you what that there is an old saw and if you give $7 bucks for it, it yours, now I would of gladly given the him the $20 for it but hey he was a tough hackler. I search his tables some more to see what else I might find when I picked up an old 1 ½ chisel with no handle I started to ask him what he was asking for this gem when he said you can have that old thing I was going to throw it out, so I put it in my pocket. Then I the saw a little bench vice like the one I’ve been wanting to get for Tina, it had $10 dollars on so I pick it up pleased with that price and went to pay him, he looked at to the vice and told I could have it for $3 bucks that said I was a tough sale. I gave him $10 dollars and thank you and got back in the van.

At another yard sale I found a Shop Smith Mark 5 for $75 the man said the motor was shot on it I said that was fine I can fix that with no problem, so I paid him and ask if I could pick it up later this week. Even if I have to buy I new motor this will make a fine lathe for the shop. thing are coming together.

On Saturday my son in law was out with his sister shopping yard sales and he picked me up a box of hand planes for $45 there was a really nice Stanley #5 1/4 and Fowler that looks like it could be a #6 but I don’t know nothing about these planes so I need to research them a bit. There were also several block planes in the boxes some really nice ones. So now my plane collection is glowing and the ones I don’t use I was pass on to my grandsons tool box for them to use as they glow up.

Other finds at yard sales includes some 4” c clamps, 2 small back saws, a dovetail saw, all of these are older tools which I like some of the saw I got for my grandson I want to start letting him build things he’s getting old enough and is starting to show some interest.

Slow day

Today has been a slow day. Finally finished the cabinet for my daughter and got it inside her house, placed just where she wanted it, and I must say it looks much nicer than I thought it would. I didn't expect much from it given what I was working with, but I guess that just goes to show you with a little imagination and low expectations anything is possible. One of the best parts of working on that particular piece was I wasn't afraid to let my 18 month old grandson help me with it. He got to help plane some wood and was a real natural at it, he sanded a bit and even show a lot of interest in it (I expected that will fade with time). Its funny, now when I ask him if he helped me build that piece of furniture he says YEAP!! and runs over to it and rubs on it like only someone who loves woodworking can rub on a piece of wood, and I can already see the pride in is eyes and I down in my heart I know that I have planted the seed for another generation of woodworkers in my family. I guess I better watch my tools close when this little guys around or I might just be a few planes short when he goes home.

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

The Glen Drake Workshop

The Glen Drake Workshop

Tonight, my business partner who is also my lovely wife, and I had the pleasure of attending a Glen Drake Workshop on tools and techniques, and he gave a demonstration of all the unique tools that he sells. He demonstrated some very interesting tools from his Tite-Mark™ marking gauge right down to his wild wild west saw, which was a very interesting saw with its two handles and no teeth at the beginning and end of the blade that it was designed to work with his Kerf-Starter™ a kind of a one tooth saw that works like a scraper removing a thin path of wood the same thickness as the kerf of your saw. So now your saw already has a small kerf to start its cut in. He has also come up with an ingenious way of laying out the assembly clearances right into your layout lines. Now you can achieve an almost machine quality fit with your hand cut joinery and still retain the softness of hand cut work.

Glen talked about how each woodworker brings to this art the experiences of other things in their life’s and how those experiences shape how they approach the way they do their woodworking. For him he was a musician and then later a programmer and he talked about how being a musician taught him to practice, practice, and practice some more before actually going out and playing for the world a finished version of what he did. Woodworkers on the other hand seem to do it just the opposite, most get into woodworking because of a need that has to be filled and a lack of money to fill it so they build it, then find that hey this is ok I like doing this, its even fun. So then they set off to learn how to build and then start practicing the craft. He talked about as a programmer he learned how to deconstructed and think about all the what-ifs and how that helped him in his woodworking and his tool business. He said what made him start designing tools was is aggravation in the tools that he was using on a day to day basis. I guess if necessity is the mother of invention then aggravation is it’s cruel aunt.

One of those innovated designs he has is his hammers, and his hammers are some of the best I think I've ever picked up and in 30 years of swinging hammers I have picked up a lot of hammers. Going back to his music although he didn't say what instrument he played I kind of got the feeling that he was a drummer, and from his drumming experience is where I think he came up with the unique handles on his hammers. When you first see his hammers the first thing you notice about them is the fine workmanship that goes into making them Then you will notice that his chisel hammers have bent handles because they are made for left and right handed people. They sit very comfortably in the palm of your hand and because of the bend of the handle you can work with your wrists in a very natural feeling position. One other feature I really liked about these hammers is that they had a domed head and the flat head; the doomed is good for striking chisels with a flat face handle and the flat head is good for a striking chisel with a doomed face handle.

He also makes these hammers in a very short handle version he calls the Tite-Hammers™ they are made to be held very close to your chest when working close up. They would be very handy for a craver or somebody's doing very close work. My business partner alias wife really like the Tite-Hammers™ one of her hobbies is jewelry making and she works really a close all the time and regular hammers are always getting in her way. Plus she really like to finish on the hammer I could see her making some kind of jewelry out of it or at lease decorating the handle on it.

It was a very good wookshop we really enjoyed the evening. I also enjoyed meeting Glen Drake and all the people from Popular Woodworking, although we didn't buy any tool's we are planning on buying some in the future. I did buy Chris Schwartz’s book on Work Benches and had him sign it for me plus we got to see the popular woodworking shop and meet the most of the editors. I got to meet and talk to one of my favorite editors Glen Huey, and see the table that he build in their last issue We got a peek at some of their upcoming project that they are building for the next issue of Woodworking Magazine, so it was the very nice evening. I hope to get invited back again the people from Popular Woodworking and F&W Publications did a great job. The food was great, and people were great, and any time woodworkers together and talk about tools and woodworking you know the conversations was great. We wish you all could've been there but since you wasn’t I hope my little blog here will give you a little taste of the evening. So remember to keep the sawdust out of your eyes and stay safe.

Joey

The Little Things Can Really Hurt

Some times the smallest things can cause us a lot of pain. and as woodworkers one of those things are splinters. On and average day in the shop I know I must get at least three or four, and some time as many as ten, depending on what type of lumber I am working with. The worst one I thing I ever got happen just the other day. I was fixing a piece of treated lattice work by my front porch when I picked up a splinter in my little finger. It managed to go in at old angle right up under my finger nail, now I still haven't been able to extract it with my first aid kit that I keep handy for extracting stray little wood slivers. I am hoping my body will expel this on its own, if not I am afraid I may have to go to the ER, because; my finger is turning red and is stiff and numb. I sure wouldn't want it to get infected and have to be treated in the hospital. Now that may sound extreme, but it wouldn't be the first time for me, and while I was there the ER doctor told me its not as rare as one might expect.

Some wear gloves while handling boards, but I always found that awkward and a little dangerous while running a machine, although a friend of mine told me he use his golf gloves, so I tried mine and found they where comfortable and safe to use, now a just need to get one for my right hand.

I keep a of small bandaid box in my tool box, and in my van, and in them I keep I pair of good tweezers, a magnifying glass, a few large upholstery needles I sharpened, some neosporen, a razor blade, and some bandaids. I found that with these few items I can safely get most splinters out of my hands. For the more stubborn ones I soak them in warm water with baking soda that cause the wood to swell and most time pop them right out. If I get one of them multi splinter kind that we all hate, I use yellow glue rubbing it all over the area and letting it dry then peeling it off and with it the splinters.

Well I sure hope everyone is staying safe so remember to keep the saw dust out of your eyes
Joey

Reclaimed Shop Cabinet

This was a shop cabinet that I kept tools on in my old shop

My daughter ask if I could make here a cabinet for her living room out of it I really wanted to just build something new but for some darn reason she liked this set of shelves. Now it had been banged up, had oil on it, and who know what else in the year or so setting in the shop as you can see

I did little work on it. and l think it came it out pretty nice. I added some nice trim, made a top for it and did some art work of my grandkids on the top, then scraped and sanded the whole thing. and used a glaze and some paint to help hide some of the scars, then I gave it a few coats of poly.

The hardest part about this project was working on the tiny porch of our apartment. and trying to do the finish work out there with the wind and the rain always coming just after I got that last bit of finish laid down, well lets just stay it seemed like mother nature must not want me to of put poly on this thing, because every time I did she try to blow every thing she could right over stick to it. I guess she wanted me to use shellac.

If you would like to see more on this project of others I have done you can go to my project page on LumberJock.Com

Joey

Bookcase Design

This was a bookcase I designed a while ago. I pulled it out of my design book and dusted it off and I entered it in the recent Lumberjock - Popular Woodworking bookcase design contest. Although it was not a winner I still feel it was a good design. I may of done better in the contest if I would of remembered the words of one my English professors from my college days, she always said “you have to write for your audiences” well I guess when you are designing for a contest that is going to published your design in a magazine, it is a lot like writing a paper for an English class. I didn't design it with that audience in mind, which in this case would have been the magazine. I rushed in and submitted what I thought was a good design, one that was original, but it wasn't one that really fit the format of the magazine. It was just not the kind of project that they published on a regular basis. More over I kind of knew that going into it, because I have been loyal reader of their magazine for many years, and I still went with the design, because; I just knew there was going to be a lot of arts and craft, and green and green style entries, and did not want to enter another one. So, I thought, a federal style bookcase that set low might make an impression, and it did make on the Popular Woodworking's Blog.

One other thing that I think might of hurt me in the contest is I hand drew my entry, and I notice all the winners was summited in Sketchup. Maybe it would have helped to get my vision of my bookcase across better. This is certainly a skill that I need to work on.

So I didn't win, I really didn't expect to. Fact is as the contest grew closer to a close my biggest worry was that I might win, then I would had to make the choice of building the project and writing the article or letting Popular Woodworking do it for me, and I think I would had to go for it, and that was scary. I did learn a little, and I put myself out there, and in the end I know that the editors picked the right bookcase, it sure is the one I would of picked if I had their job.

I might one day get to build this bookcase, I think it would look really nice in a living room, maybe a dining room, or even behind a sofa. The design I think it would certainly challenge one skill to build.

Right now, if I was to build a bookcase for my home. it would probably have an arts and crafts style to it because my wife leans more to the arts and crafts furniture and the table shes wants me to build is an arts and crafts style table and a bookcase would look good setting in our dining room full of woodworking books.

Joey

Safety Week

I would like to say, I think when Marc Spagnuolo of the Wood Whisperer declared May 5th through May 9th safety week it was a great idea. I know there will be a lot of people going over use of safety equipment, like respirators, hearing protection, and how important it is the use the guards on your saw and they all are very important. But one of the most important things that I think we overlooked as woodworkers is our backs.

I am saying this from my own experience, because in 1992. I was working for small shop on Saturdays, while I was running my own cabinet and trim business through week. On this particular Saturday my employer asked me to help him move his table saw. Now he had a large cabinet saw with a 7 hp three-phase motor that was capable of cutting 60 inches right of the blade. So this was a big, big saw and to make things worse it was a small shop, with lots of tools. So we had muscle this saw to where it was going. While we were moving it somewhere in the process I felt a little pain in my lower back. Than a little later I was laminating some table tops after I glued down the tops I would stack them about seven high and then place a couple of five gallon buckets of water on top of them as a clamp until the glue dried. After about my third set I reached down to pick up a bucket and about half way up. I felt a snap in my back, and I fell to the ground. That was in 1992, three surgeries, many hours of PT and almost one year are not being able to walk, all because of a few careless moments of not watching how I was picking something up.

So when you're in your shop muscling around them heavy sheets of plywood, you would do well, to be very careful of your back, where a back brace, stretch, and loosing up them muscles a little. If you need to move heavy items go inside get some help, call your neighbor, and use your tables or some other type of holding jigs. I am here to tell you it really isn't worth it to hurt your back over trying to saw a sheet of particle board or man handle that piece of furniture up on your work bench.

I hope some of this is a little bit of a reminder to watch your back. I know I still have to remind myself to watch my body position. Even after all I've been through. Well, that's my little spiel on safety. So keep the saw dust out of your eyes and live long and prosper

Teasure Hunting

Last night I went to the auction in the town where I live and could not believe what they had on the auction block, it was a vintage beech workbench top with a wooden vice. It didn’t seem like no one wanted it so I made a starting bid of two dollars, and my bid turned out to be the only bid. So, I got this workbench top for two dollars. The top is in rough shape but I think I can bring it back with a little work and a new base.

Last week at this same auction, I was able to buy an older metal seven inch vice for five dollars. Again, I thought more people would want this vice. I opened the bid for five dollars, and again, I was the only one who bided on it. At this same auction that night they sold two pieces of pine 2 x 4 that had several holes drilled in them and was held together with two quarter-inch bolts and wing nuts. The auctioneer called them homemade shop clamps and there was a lively exchange of bidding, and these sold for seven dollars each and there wasn’t $.50 worth of hardware holding together those two boards. So I guess I'm lucky to be going to an auction with people who do not know the value of good woodworking tools.

I've been going to these auctions trying to fine some older planes and saws. Who knows, maybe I will get lucky and run across a few more jewels in the process. One can never know. I did notice they had a pile of rough sawed lumber and maybe a I’ll will get lucky and get that pile of lumber at a good price

I will post some pictures of my treasures and the progress I have in restoring them. I’ll keep everyone updated the best I can. I hope to start building the base and bring the top back to some kind of usable condition. Until then keep the saw dust out of your eyes.

Joey